In a previous blog post we explained how earlier this year British volunteer Alice Alderson supported our “Tipling girls” through training them in cutting and sewing techniques. This work has matured into a final product that is now ready to go under the pillow – a felt heart for the tooth fairy!

A great idea

So here it is: a hand-stitched felt heart that has a little pocket, containing a note with the name of the girl who made it. The felt heart comes in a transparent mesh bag that also contains an information card about the charity and three blank notes (two as spares) for the child to write a personal message to the fairy. The bag is then sealed with a tie label. All the design work has been done by Alice. So after a few months of hard work by our girls and volunteers it’s now over to the tooth-fairy. And to you! We are offering these distinctive Christmas stocking fillers at £4.50 each. 100% of the profit goes to ChoraChori. There is a minimum order of five with an additional £2.50 to cover postage and packing for European sales only. To place an order just drop me a line.

Delivering materials to communities affected by the Nepal floods

It’s three months since the terrible Nepal floods and associated landslides that caused such devastation in south and southeast Nepal. But ChoraChori is still there helping villagers to rebuild their lives.

Our emergency appeal

In August we launched an emergency appeal in response to the worst floods in south Asia in decades. The public response combined with grants has to date raised a total of £14,685. This allowed us to deliver immediate food relief to affected communities, while keeping some funds in reserve for rebuilding. Specifically, we were able to help 97 families who had lost everything, providing them with rice, lentils (dal), oil and salt. We also provided some additional items like cooking utensils, blankets, quilts and hygiene items. These families were living in rural areas that we know well, remote and impoverished places where child trafficking is a constant challenge. Thanks to our efforts these villagers were less vulnerable than they would have been otherwise.

Time to rebuild

ChoraChori has been monitoring the situation in the villages over the recent holiday periods. And yesterday field staff members Yogesh Dhami and Pratap Titung returned to Makwanpur District for a follow up visit. But they didn’t go there empty-handed. Thanks to our fundraising we have been able to support 18 of the most needy families by helping them purchase wood and corrugated iron sheets to rebuild their homes. Villagers like the woman pictured left have thumb-printed letters of commitment to use the funds as we’ve agreed. This process was witnessed by the Chairman of the local Ward as a further safeguard.

The villagers now have one month to complete the wooden frameworks to the agreed high specifications. After that we will return to distribute the corrugated iron as roofing material. The new homes will be built better than before meaning that these families will be less at the mercy of future floods. And this is just the first phase in our rebuilding programme!